


Fear in Blood

by whiteraven1606



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Anal Sex, Bottom Steve Rogers, Fluff and Angst, M/M, Military Kink, Safer Sex, Worry, tiny mention of past canon relationships
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-16
Updated: 2014-09-16
Packaged: 2018-02-17 14:36:30
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,771
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2313068
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/whiteraven1606/pseuds/whiteraven1606
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sometimes fear is justified and sometimes it blows up bigger in a person's mind than it needs to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Fear in Blood

**Author's Note:**

  * For [vassalady](https://archiveofourown.org/users/vassalady/gifts).



****

Hulk sat down with a sigh. "Starman."

Steve frowned as he stepped closer. "Are you alright, Hulk?"

Hulk ignored Steve's question as he pressed a fingertip to Steve's shield. "Puny Bruce scared."

"Scared?" Steve held his arm steady as Hulk pressed harder on the shield. "What do you mean?"

With a low growl, Hulk flopped over onto his back.

Steve caught himself as the sudden loss of resistance had him falling forward. "What is he scared of?"

Hulk didn't say anything as he started to shrink back down into Bruce.

Steve pushed down the desire to ask Bruce what he was scared of right away. He knew Bruce was going to be tired since the fight had ranged over several miles. He turned his head to the sound of Iron Man coming in to land. "Here comes Tony with clothes."

"I hope he remembered shoes this time."

****

Steve finished showering the last of the battle's grim off himself and made his way out into his and Bruce's bedroom. He smiled as his gaze fell on Bruce's science journals spread over the nearer nightstand. "JARVIS, is Bruce coming to bed soon?"

"He has informed me that he will be late and to please not wait on him."

Steve sighed as he pulled on a pair of soft pants to sleep in. "Fine." He shook his head as he settled under the covers of his side of the bed. He slowed his breathing as he turned onto his side. While he waited he thought about Bruce being scared enough of something that Hulk would try to talk to Steve about it.

After nearly five hours of waiting, Steve was rewarded with the quiet footfalls of Bruce as he came to bed.

Steve kept his breathing even as Bruce muttered under his breath to himself about being a giant coward as he toed his shoes off. He kept still as Bruce climbed into bed and kissed the back of Steve's shoulder.

"I do love you. I just wish I was a better man."

Steve let himself be soft and relaxed as Bruce curled up against his back. He waited for Bruce to fall asleep before he gently tugged one of Bruce's hands loose from his tight curled posture to drape over Steve's side. He twined their fingers together and spent another hour trying to work out what exactly Bruce's problem could be.

****

Steve woke as Bruce tried to pry his fingers from Steve's hold. "Wha...?"

"Sorry, Steve, but I need to use the bathroom."

"Oh." Steve cleared his throat as he let go of Bruce's hand. He rolled over so he could watch Bruce disappear into their bathroom. He grinned as Bruce came back out minutes later. "Morning."

"Morning somewhere at least." Bruce gave a half-smile as he climbed back into bed to sit against the headboard. "You are usually up and about before I wake up."

"Usually, I haven't spent most of the night trying to work out what Hulk was talking about."

Bruce frowned. "Talking? What did he say this time?"

Steve pushed himself up to sit next to Bruce. "You don't remember?"

With a shrug, Bruce dropped his gaze to his knees. "No. All I have are some flashes of him smashing things."

"Hmm." Steve ran his fingertips along the top of Bruce's nearer arm. "He said you were scared."

"What?" Bruce frowned. "Of what?"

"Good question. He growled and turned back into you when I asked."

"Huh." Turning his head, Bruce frowned as he looked towards their windows. "I'm not scared of anything."

"Bruce." Steve pulled his hand back to rest in his lap. "Bruce, I know we agreed to go slowly and I have never asked for an explanation because I didn't need one, but if you are scared of me..."

"What? No!" Bruce ran his hand over his face. "I'm not afraid of you."

"I know I could forget my strength which is only one reason I've said I wanted to be the one receiving..."

"No, no." Bruce sighed as he ran his hand through his hair. "It isn't you. Gah, and now I sound like a romantic comedy." He turned his head and smiled at Steve. "I told you about Betty."

Steve nodded. "Yes, and I've told you about Bucky and what started with Peggy. Why..."

Bruce held up his hand to stall Steve's question. "Just before the fight in Harlem, Betty and I had the chance to have sex, but I stopped us because the Other Guy nearly came out."

Steve frowned. "Okay...What does that have to do with...Why are you afraid of you now? Hulk knows me and I really don't think he wants in on anything..." He waved his hand vaguely as his ears started to heat up. "...we wanted to do in bed."

Bruce reached out and rubbed the tip of Steve's ear. "Why is it you can talk about positions you and Bucky used, but you can't actually use the word sex when talking about a present relationship?"

"Don't try to derail me." Steve caught Bruce's hand. "You hide how strong you are, you know, but that doesn't mean I don't see it, Bruce."

"I'm not..."

"Bruce." Steve reached across Bruce's body to capture his other hand. "Bruce, listen to me. What are you afraid of that isn't inadvertent transformations?"

"I'm poison." Bruce winced. "I mean...my blood. It's laced with gamma radiation even while I'm not the Other Guy. Ingesting my blood could hurt even you."

Steve shook his head. "What does that have to do with us...I'm already careful about nipping you while we're making out since you said you didn't like the pain. And if I'm the one being stretched then I don't see what the problem is, love."

Bruce blinked. "You...Uh. I suppose no one gave you a sex education video, did they? There can be traces of blood in ejaculate and I'm not certain even just traces wouldn't hurt you."

Steve frowned. "A condom wouldn't stop it?"

"Condoms can break. I just don't want to take the chance of hurting you. I was reckless with Betty, but since then I've resigned myself to not...I'm sorry."

Steve pulled Bruce in against his chest and wrapped his arms around him. "Hey...Don't be sorry, Bruce."

Bruce sighed and leaned into Steve. "Still. I know you know what you want."

Steve kissed Bruce's temple. "We'll work something out."

****

Steve waited outside of Tony's workshop until Tony came down to start working. "Morning, Tony."

Tony squinted at him as he opened the door to the workshop. "Right. To what do I owe this visit, Cap?"

Steve followed him in and perched on the edge of Tony's huge desk. "I was wondering how radioactive Bruce actually is when he's Bruce."

Tony lolled his head on the headrest of his chair to stare at Steve. "You're worried?"

"He's worried about hurting me and I want to know how much of his fear is backed by science and how much I can blame General Ross for."

Tony snorted. "I say blame it all on Ross." He sat up and pulled up a file on his monitor. "Let's see what we know."

Steve leaned forward as Tony flicked through files. "I'm not asking you to steal information, Tony."

"Steal? Who said anything about stealing? Also, already had possession...so, not stealing now. Right? Right."

Steve pinched the bridge of his nose. "Tony."

Tony grinned as he opened the file he thought he wanted. "Ah, here we go...Well, as long as you don't have a blood drinking kink you should be fine."

"There can be traces of blood in semen."

"True. Usually pretty small..." Tony flicked up a blank file and started typing an equation. "He's saying no to everything, huh?"

"More or less. I wanted to ask why he allows kissing when we could accidentally cut the inside of his cheek or something, but I refrained."

"Yeah, I wouldn't give him more things to fear either." Tony glanced up at Steve. "It probably wouldn't affect you like it does mere mortals, but I agree with Bruce we really don't want to find out on the fly."

Steve nodded. "Doesn't mean I'm going to give up."

Tony grinned wolfishly. "Well, not when you've got Bruce's fine ass to be handsy with."

"Tony."

Tony barked out a laugh and turned towards Steve. "Me telling him it'll be fine won't help, you know."

"I know." Steve glanced at Tony before pointedly staring across the workshop. "Can you design an unbreakable condom?"

"A...Oh." Tony blinked a couple of times before nodding slowly. "Leave it to me, Cap. I'll get you into his pants by the end of the week."

****

Steve was expecting a grand reveal from Tony or at least a completely embarrassing hand off at a Team dinner. So when he came home from another battle with a tired Bruce in tow, Steve wasn't thinking about sex or condoms.

He put Bruce to bed even though his hair was still damp. Steve settled on the edge of his side of the bed with a sigh. He pulled open the top drawer of his nightstand and frowned when he saw a small box nestled in with everything else in the drawer.

Steve pulled the box out and opened it to find a note from Tony and over two dozen individually wrapped condoms. Steve smiled as he read Tony's note not to use them all up in a night and to just ask JARVIS for a refill. With a shake of his head, Steve gently put the box back and took Tony's note to his desk in the study to tuck into his journal where he knew Bruce wouldn't see.

****

Now that he had means to alleviate some of Bruce's fear, Steve found himself reluctant to push Bruce on the topic. He let things continue as they had been until Bruce pulled away again just as they started to progress from kissing once again.

Steve watched Bruce from across the room. "Deep breaths."

Bruce nodded as he worked to bring his breathing under control. "I...don't know...why you put up...with this."

Steve could almost hear the silent 'with me' that Bruce was thinking. "Bruce...What if we could get a condom that couldn't break?"

Bruce's breathing hitched. "What?"

"What if I could promise you that you wouldn't endanger me just from making love?"

Bruce came back to their bed and sat down on the edge. "What did you do?"

Steve ducked his head. "I might have asked Tony for some help."

"Wha...Ooooh, that's why he was asking if I'd ever had any allergies and if I liked textures on my skin." Bruce's eyebrows went up. "That was over a month ago. Did it really take him that...No, you've had them awhile haven't you? Tony was hinting I should be all dopey smiles one morning and looked worried when I didn't know what he was alluding to."

"I don't want to pressure you into an act you are so scared of you wouldn't mention your fear to me without me asking."

Bruce grimaced. "It...I'm not good at asking for help, Steve." He reached across the bed to wrap his fingers around Steve's arm. "You really asked Tony for condoms?"

Steve giggled as he nodded. "He was a real good sport about it all."

Bruce let go of Steve's arm. "Let me see one, please."

Steve nodded and shifted around so he could get the box from his drawer. He opened it and pulled one of them out to hand to Bruce.

Bruce turned the package over and over in between his fingers. "Unbreakable, huh?"

With a nod, Steve took the package and opened it. "I understand it would still be scary, but I still want to try." He handed the condom back to Bruce.

Bruce looked it over before stretching it on his fingers. "You know I used to have a bit of a military kink back before..." He gave a fleeting smile as he pinched the side of the condom and started pulling it away from his fingers.

Steve smiled gently as he took the other side of the condom between his thumb and forefinger and started to pull the opposite direction of Bruce. "You liked the uniform?"

"Dog tags more than anything." Bruce started to grin as the condom kept stretching far past the size a normal condom could handle before breaking.

Steve grinned as Bruce stopped pulling. "Would you like me to wear mine?"

Bruce looked up from fingering the condom's material. "You wouldn't mind?"

"Nope." Steve leaned back to reach his nightstand and pulled open the bottom drawer to fish his old tags from the corner. "You want to wait? We don't have to do this..."

Bruce pounced on him in a flash. "We...we should try. Give me another one."

Steve slipped his tags on before getting another condom from the nightstand. "Remember we can stop any time."

Bruce nodded as he took the condom. "I've always known that, Steve."

Steve smiled as he reached for the hem of his shirt.

****

Steve adjusted where his tags rested on his chest as Bruce rolled the condom on himself. He watched as Bruce ran his fingertips around the head of his own cock. "Okay?"

Bruce lifted his head and smiled brightly at Steve. "This is..." He knee-walked forward until he was pushing Steve's legs out with his thighs. "You..." He ran his hand up Steve's side and then across his chest to Steve's tags. "Yeah. Okay."

"Good." Steve used his foot to press gently on Bruce's lower back. "Come on, soldier, get a move on."

Bruce licked his lips. "I didn't think...We don't have any lube, do we?"

Steve ran his fingers up Bruce's side. "Back of the top drawer of my nightstand. We have plenty."

Bruce fumbled after the lube as Steve kept roaming his hands across Bruce's skin.

Steve flicked his tags to make them click as Bruce took his time spreading slick along Steve's opening. He reveled in the feel of Bruce's fingers as he was opened up lovingly slow.

Steve stroked Bruce's arm each time he had to hold still and breathe for a few moments. Steve gently pulled Bruce's free hand to the tags resting on his chest.

Bruce gripped the tags as he shifted his other hand enough to make Steve gasp.

"Please...Bruce."

Bruce patted Steve's chest and found the lube by Steve's knee to add more to his fingers as they pumped in and out of Steve. Bruce leaned over enough to kiss the skin next to Steve's tags as he slipped his fingers free of Steve's body. "I've got you, love."

Steve canted his hips as Bruce braced himself to thrust. "You're alright, Bruce."

He slowly eased himself deeper into Steve. He stopped to just breathe as his hips touched Steve. 

Steve smiled up at Bruce and found Bruce's hand where it was braced near Steve's shoulder. "Love."

Bruce returned Steve's smile and leaned in to kiss Steve even as he pulled his hips back to thrust.

Steve met each of Bruce's moves with a roll of his hips. They changed speeds several times as Bruce adjusted their positions to keep from riding up the bed. Steve wrapped his legs around Bruce to dig his heels into Bruce's ass to urge him on.

Bruce buried his face in Steve's neck as his speed turned to little stuttering thrusts as he orgasmed. He slipped to one side to rest against Steve as they both lay panting.

Steve smiled lazily as Bruce flicked the dog tags again. "Still alright?"

"Better than alright." Bruce kissed Steve's skin near the tags' chain. "Thank you for understanding."

Steve ran his fingers down Bruce's back. "I'm glad you were willing to try."

Bruce's grin widened. "Me too."

He slipped his fingers into Bruce's tangled curls. "We aren't telling Tony."

Bruce laughed as he buried his face in Steve's chest.

****

Steve struck another robot down with his shield and turned as Hulk landed behind him with a loud thud. "Hulk."

"Starman." Hulk leaned down and ran a fingertip over Steve's cowl just hard enough to make Steve bend his knees slightly to take some of the pressure off his head. "Happy Puny Bruce." He huffed. "Is good."

Steve grinned. "Thanks, Hulk."

Hulk pointed at an incoming robot. "Smash?"

"Yep. Smash all the robots you want." Steve smiled as he watched for a bare moment before he had his own robot to deal with.

****


End file.
